Actors - Crimes and Misdemeanors

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	Actors - Crimes and Misdemeanors

Crimes and Misdemeanors is a film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Woody Allen (as Cliff), Martin Landau (as Judah), Mia Farrow (as Halley), Anjelica Huston (as Dolores) and Alan Alda (as Lester). The film was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for the following Academy Awards:

Woody Allen, for Best Director.
Martin Landau, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
.
Woody Allen, for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Due to the film's serious and realistic treatment of its plot and characters, it is considered by many to be Allen's most mature film.

Plot

The film is set in 1980s New York and follows two main characters: Judah, a successful ophthalmologist, and Cliff, a failed documentary filmmaker. The two men are each confronted, respectively, with different moral crises.

Judah's crisis concerns the affair he had with an airline stewardess named Dolores. After Judah unceremoniously ends their relationship, Dolores, scorned, blackmails Judah, threatening to tell his wife about their affair. Frustrated and desperate, Judah has her killed, and subsequently must deal with his guilt.

Cliff, on the other hand, falls in love with a woman named Halley, who is producing a documentary Cliff is working on. Cliff becomes despondent over his miserable marriage, and pursues Halley, who eventually rejects Cliff for Lester, a man that is his polar opposite.

Influences

The film appears to be heavily influenced by the films of director Ingmar Bergman. This is evident from the film's somber tone and bleak themes, as well as little of the nostalgia that permeates many of Allen's films. There is also one key scene in which Judah relives a memory from his childhood while visiting his former home that is nearly identical, in terms of thematic intent and staging, to a scene from Bergman's Wild Strawberries.

Music

As with most of his films, Allen makes good use of classical and jazz music in many of the film's scenes. One piece that stands out is Schubert's String Quartet #15 in G, which is used in one particularly dramatic scene.

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